Professional Work Experience

Avenues: The World School

Avenues: Coordinator of Middle School Service Learning and Community Engagement; Teacher, History/Humanities 8, August, 2012 - present.

    -- Work across all divisions, Nursery through Upper School, to develop, facilitate,

            and promote service learning and engagement opportunities for

             all students and classrooms.

    -- Focus was originally to connect middle school students across divisions.

    -- Featured accomplishments include "Project Gratitude," a school-wide

            response to Hurricane Sandy, including a food drive, a partnership with an

            elementary school in Coney Island, and a "Count Your Blessings" fund-

            raiser.

    -- Coordinate an "ACE" (Avenues Community Engagement) class for 7th and 8th

            grade (see curriculum link).

    -- In development at this new school: buddy relationships among divisions, including a

            "tinkering project" between 2nd and 4th grades; an Avenues book drive;

            teacher-led field experiences; and student-devised projects for the "greater

             good."

    -- Teach two sections of Grade 8 history: "The City" -- a focus on New York

            City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and patterns of migration.

    -- Run a daily advisory of 11 students based on Responsive Classroom curriculum.

    -- Use 21st century pedagogies and technology, including iTunes U and iPads, team

            teaching, project-based learning, differentiation, and alternative assessments.

    -- As appropriate for a senior faculty member, provide frequent mentoring of younger

            colleagues and support for administration and the institution.

Avenues: Curriculum Consultant, History/Humanities/The World Course, Grades 8/9, November, 2011-July, 2012.

  --  Used Rubicon Atlas software and Google Docs to work collaboratively with a team of specialists to create two courses for a new school.

    -- Culled best practices from two decades in the classroom, research on 21st learning methods in innovative applications of technology, character education, and global learning to create a base program that will evolve at the Chelsea campus during the coming school year.

    --  As a member of the Core Team, the consultation will be ongoing, and my colleagues I will contribute to a networked curriculum that will form the basis of humanities at forthcoming Avenues campuses worldwide.

Riverdale Country School, New York City,  September 2011 - June 2012.

            --Grades 6 and 7 History Faculty (Full Time).

            --Worked closely with administration on character education; featured in                         NBC news program.

            --Helped to rewrite the grade 6 history curriculum.

            --Fostered interdisciplinary connections in the middle school, including

                 coordination of the Brooklyn Bridge Project, which involved English,

                history, math, and science teachers.

St. Luke's School, New York City, 1996- June 2011.

-- Grade 8 Head Teacher/Homeroom, Grade 7 and 8 Social Studies, Grade 7 Spanish, Grade 8 Health/Life Issues.

(also taught Grade 6 Social Studies and Grade 8 English)

Grade 7 = World History: Islam, the Renaissance, and U.S. Colonization

              Grade 8 = American History II: The Constitution Challenged   

I designed the curriculum for these courses. To see the units, essential questions, and curriculum maps for Grade 8, go to the CURRICULUM link.

* Designed and updated a history and social studies curriculum that integrated social justice, global citizenship, and active learning with a focus on differentiation and 21stcentury skills. Creative curriculum units included the Constitution and juvenile rights; a comparison of independence movements in the 13 Colonies, India, and Algeria; a conflict unit about Islam in America, followed by Islamic empires; and theeconomic foundations of colonialism (including Atlantic slave trade and a comparison to modern slavery).* Embraced new learning technologies, such as wikis, podcasts, online homework blogs, and SmartBoards.

* Helped to lead school’s academic strategic planning committee on 21st century skills, including implementation of research in the classroom “laboratory” and attendance at conferences.

* Served on the Steering Committee of the NYSAIS 2009-2010 Self Study Team for school accreditation, helping to organize and chair committees, design templates, edit reports, and proofread the final document.

* Implemented school-wide curriculum mapping with the administrative team, including planning professional development days, educating peers about mapping strategies and concepts, and pioneering the use of web-based software.

* Wrote annual letters of student recommendation for high schools and assisted in placement process.

* Designed and coordinated an extensive service learning program for the 7th and 8th grades, as well as school-wide community outreach. Partnerships included a food pantry, a drop-in center for the elderly homeless, and St. Luke’s-based programs such as the “Go” and the “People with AIDS” projects.

* Created and coordinated numerous diversity and human rights projects and served as faculty advisor for the Amnesty International chapter, the AIDS Walk, and other human rights ventures. Service and diversity at St. Luke’s were integrated into the curriculum through a close study of the United Nations Millennium Goals and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

* Fostered interdisciplinary and inter-divisional relationships within the curriculum, service work, and school life, including pairing of older and younger students in chapel, older students mentoring younger pupils in history, and skills and content correlation with English and technology teachers.

* Co-founded a collaborative “buddy” relationship with Newcomers High School, a public school for new immigrants in Astoria, Queens, with a focus on human rights work and immigration, including an annual Human Rights Day at St. Luke’s School for the past seven years, and a visit to Queens each March. Featured on the website program, “Not in our Town,” as an example of successful educational anti-bias work.

* Programmed and implemented frequent field experiences in the community as a part of the curriculum, such as annual visits to a mosque, teacher-conducted walking tours of the Lower East Side, and research expeditions to Green-Wood Cemetery and Ellis Island.

* Co-produced drama productions with multi-media; used drama workshop activities.

La Scuola, New York City, Middle School History and English, Spring Term, 1996.

The American Overseas School of Rome, Italy, Middle and High School History, 1992 - 1995.

* Taught U.S. History, A.P. U.S. History, and IB World History (grade 12).

* Middle School Head (1993-1994).

West High School, Wichita, Kansas, High School History and E.S.L., 1988 - 1992.  

         * Taught A.P. U.S. History, Honors World History, and U.S. History.

         * Worked on an interdisciplinary academic team.

Heights High School, Wichita, Kansas, High School Spanish, 1987-1988.

RELATED SHORT-TERM OR SUMMER WORK EXPERIENCE

        South Junior High, Lawrence, Kansas, Paraprofessional in Special Education

        U.S. Department of Justice, English and Citizenship Instructor

        Eurolanguage Academy, Madrid, Spain, English Teacher

        NASA Historical Archives, Researcher& Book Editor, Washington, D.C.